Samskip and Geest steam into Gothenburg

In a move that is seen as strengthening and improving Samskip and Geest's presence in the Swedish market, Samskip AB is to open a branch and sales office in Gothenburg on 1 June, 2006. Represented there will be all of the relevant activities of Samskip including its Icelandic container services, the intra-European services of Geest North Sea Line and Van Dieren Maritime plus various agency activities. With this new office, Samskip now operates 57 offices in 22 countries.

Gothenburg is the main transport and logistics area in Sweden and is the largest port in the Scandinavian and Baltic Sea area. Ulf Aaberg, who is employed as Gothenburg Branch Manager and is responsible for sales in Gothenburg, North and Mid Sweden, explains the move:

"We are taking a much stronger and more active sales approach in the Swedish market. I am sure that the North and Mid Swedish customers will welcome our capabilities with our multimodal pan-European shortsea network, our first class service to and from Iceland, the Van Dieren rail service from the Ruhr in Germany, our South America West Coast services and, not least, our know-how within the reefer logistics segment."

Rotterdam-headquartered Geest North Sea Line, which was acquired by Samskip in 2005, subsequently took on management responsibility for Samskip's container services linking the UK and North Continent with Scandinavia and Baltic Sea ports.

In the Swedish market, Geest operates a weekly container service linking Hull and Rotterdam with Helsingborg and Varberg. Bilbao in Spain and the Irish ports of Cork, Dublin, Drogheda and Belfast are served via transhipment in Rotterdam. Destinations in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and France are served through Geest's extensive intermodal network.

Helsingborg will operate as the hub for the Nordic and Baltic region, both for Samskip's Icelandic services and for Geest's links to the UK/North Continent. From Helsingborg, Samskip and Geest serve Klaipeda and Ventspils in the Baltic Sea. Cargo to and from Moscow will be transported via Ventspils by the trucking and rail company Van Dieren Maritime. Hull in the UK is served twice a week from and to Helsingborg. Cargo to and from Gothenburg will be served via Varberg, which is situated just south of Gothenburg.

Samskip's Icelandic service links Varberg with Torshavn in the Faroe Islands and Reykjavik.

Samskip AB also offers a weekly service to the South American West Coast and the Caribbean as agents for Ocean Express.

The Samskip/Geest container pool consists of over 13,000 containers, ranging from 20ft to 45ft pallet-wide high cube containers including reefer, curtain-siders and flat-racks. Together, the two lines have 24 vessels in the fleet with four newbuildings coming into service later this year.

"Our Swedish customers are quality oriented but cost conscious. Also, they are demanding more environmentally efficient and competitive transport solutions within Europe. With the large euro pallet intake in our 45ft palletwide container equipment, we are competing head on with the trailer market. We combine transport by sea, road and rail in the optimal manner in order to provide our customers with fast, reliable and less expensive transport.

"As a small company we have the luxury to be flexible. We listen to our customers and can design our services to meet their exact requirements."

Explaining the opening of the Gothenburg office, Ms Ödefors stated:

"We need to be where our customers are. And with this in mind, we will also open a new office in Helsingborg in September."

Contact details for the new office in Gothenburg are as follows:

Samskip AB

Skårs Led 3

412 63 Gothenburg

Telephone: +46 31 703 7129

Fax: +46 31 703 7101

Mobile phone: +46 705581494

E-mail: ulf.aberg@samskip.se

For further information about Geest North Sea Line services please visit its website at www.geest.com.